Ashby Elizabeth is here!!!
She is here. She is finally here and I have been too in love and overwhelmed to type out an official post. Plus, I wanted to wait until we stopped long enough to listen to what she said her name was. We didn't calm down enough until yesterday to properly understand that she wanted to be called Ashby Elizabeth. We had spent the last few nights before she was born talking about names during dinner. Then on July 13th she was born at 2:42 pm after 14 hours of labor. There had been many previous nights of labor and so we were not totally sure that would be the day, when I woke up at 12.30 in the morning with contractions, again! After she was born and we discovered she was in fact a girl. Names started spilling from my dear friend's Mason's mouth, along with the tears from her eyes. We were waiting for the next part of labor, the placenta and all just cuddling and amazed that we had been given such a great gift.
This is us at that time. Little girl is only a few minutes old. One of the first names mentioned was Daisy and that really struck me. Daisies are very significant to us. They are our wedding flower and I always think of that when I see gerber daisies. Ashby was mentioned and I said that sounds like a boy's name. Other names were mentioned over the next day but none stuck. The more I looked at her the more I felt like Ashby should be her name. Ashby is a street in Berkley so it is also sort of an undercover hippie name. Which fits since we are into the homebirth and everyone in Ohio thinks we are total hippies (they have a very general understanding there.) I started to love the name because it was unique. I had never heard it before. I looked it up online and it was not in the top 1000 names for any decade. Ashby came into the world in her own way. She has a very special story and we were very protective of her having a homebirth. I don't think she will ever meet anyone else who was driven in utero across the country to stay at an Auntie's house and then be delivered by that Auntie, in her home. So Ashby became the name. And Elizabeth is from me. I feel such a special bond with her, just like I have with all my children. And sharing a middle name makes us tied in a way that is special just like you are specially tied to your first son, first daughter, and probably every child in some way. So that is it. Ashby Elizabeth is here. At exactly 42 weeks gestation, after spending the previous day at the beach hoping we would meet soon she was born the next day. She was 8 lbs. 2 oz. and 20 inches long. She looked perfect and not at all overcooked. Although she had very long fingernails. She nursed for two hours after being born. I can't stop looking at her and we are all doing great. More later, when she has slowed down growing just a touch. (The red bruising on her face is because she had a sort of rough ride out. But, it doesn't bother her.
(The girl sure does love those fingers! I felt her hand in her mouth almost my whole pregnancy!)
